TDV: Hi Gord. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule for this interview. I’d like to start by asking you a bit about your background. When did you discover your interest in BDSM, and how did it manifest itself for you?

TDV: Would you describe for us how you see yourself fitting into the BDSM lifestyle? Are there elements of D/s in your personal relationships? Is this a lifestyle for you?
Gord: Hmm! That is a difficult question. I don't actually see myself as the typical, Dominant male, (whatever that is) and I certainly don't live the 24 - 7 lifestyle. But I am told that I do come over as a true dominant alpha male. I guess the true test is how do the ladies perceive me. I've seen many wannabee tops who the ladies just don't rate. As for D/s elements in my personal relationship, I'm still working on that angle. Serena is one helluva a tough lady, but then she keeps screwing with my perceptions by going all submissive on me. It's that chick thing; - keep um guessing!

TDV: Obviously you like tight and restrictive bondage, do you consider yourself a sadist?
Gord: Not really. I am a sort of maverick. I have no doubt many would see my super tight bondage as sadism, but that is not what I am about. I am about gaining that illusory short lived control over a woman, who I in fact consider to be very powerful adversaries endowed with a whole series of dangerous weapons. Not the least of which is a tongue that can kill a man at 50 yards with one lash if they get pissed off. Personally I wish that I could take all the stress and discomfort out of extreme bondage so that I could keep the lady bound as long as I liked.

TDV: You have one of the most unique sites on the web, most would describe it as extreme. Is the level of bondage you present on your website similar to what you practice in your personal life?
Gord: Not so much in personal life now as I am usually super busy working to build new equipment and too tired to play afterwards. In addition, Serena, my wife has become the financial whiz kid behind the website and she is just as busy as me these days, and more often than not just as tired at the end of the day. So I guess both of us get our play when working really. Almost always the shoots are fun and there is plenty of laughing going on, unless it is a really stressful high tech device that needs my extreme concentration in order to maintain safety.

TDV: You create some of the most amazing contraptions I’ve ever seen. Where do the ideas come from? Do people challenge you to create specific things (or to use specific things)?
Gord: Some do, but mostly they just come right out of my warped brain. Often I think I'll never be able to come up with something new again, and then just when I figure I have lost it, a seemingly innocent comment, or sight of something will trigger another idea. I must admit, artists and other players have inspired me as well. Notably the great bondage artists like Bob Bishop, John Willie, Stanton etc. This instant idea event has become laughingly known by all around me as "Gord having a rush of shit to the brain again." Apparently a strange faraway look comes over my face.

TDV: What do you consider to be the most extreme piece of equipment you’ve ever made yourself?
Gord: I suppose the fully molded garden roller must be the most extreme from a ladies point of view. Being cast solid in an inescapable tube of rigid foam with bearings around neck and ankles and being spun around as I roll the lawn must come pretty close to human limitations. Actually according to NASA figures, the rotation speed was about half the rotational speed a human can stand for short duration.

From an engineering point of view, probably the double borer. (Bor 'o' matic) That was a tough one to get right. Potentially it could be nasty in unskilled hands, no matter how many safety devices I built in. The set up is an intense process of checking and cross checking that requires the lady's total cooperation and feedback before the machine is switched to auto bore mode. During the set-up, the lady is required to keep a button in her hand pressed. If she feels anything untoward, she releases the button and the machine goes into auto retract on every station and returns to the default position. It does this even if there is a power failure.

TDV: What would you consider the most extreme piece of equipment made by somebody else?
Gord: I would think JG Leathers "Creature" That device is total control and nothing less. I believe I am right in saying that it has taken him 20 years to reach the current level of complexity.

TDV: Having so much equipment available to you, and being in the enviable position to pretty much do anything you can think of, is garden variety bondage boring now? (Garden variety meaning the basics and not human sprinklers or lawn mowers!)
Gord: I would say yes. There are the odd occasions when low tech bondage works for me, but normally that is only in a mainstream film where there is also a good storyline as well. I guess both the ladies that come here, and myself, are the types that get off by driving for greater sexual expression and variety.

There is also the zany aspect. I mean, how many women can claim to have had an orgasm whilst hogtied, mounted vertically on the front of a truck, and being screwed senseless by a fucking machine. It must be the ultimate 'beat that' storyline at a sex party. I often try to imagine what it must feel like for these magical adventurous ladies out there on the front of the truck. Of course my turn on is that I can keep them out there and do what I want for as long as I want, and there is nothing they can do about it. It isn't about actually doing it; it is the fact that YOU CAN, and that they know it.

TDV: Forniphilia, the making of human furniture. You felt you needed to create a word to describe this area of expertise. I’ve always considered it objectification. Is it the same thing, just more extreme? What is it about this form of bondage that draws you to it?
Gord: I didn't actually create the word, my webmaster and friend did. We needed a word to describe the phenomenon, and he came up with that. It instantly struck a cord with me, and we adopted it. Without doubt it is objectification. But it is also total control. Finally, it displays the essence of womanhood,, her curves, her shape, and the ability to allow herself to become vulnerable, and at the same time know that she is utilizing every ounce of her female power to pull the male in.. It’s a Catch 22 situation. No one is really the top. It is power shared at an incredible level.

TDV: I read through your Forniphilia FAQ and was impressed by the care and consideration you present in regards to submissives. There is a school of thought out that says submissives are there for the dominant’s pleasure period. How does that fit with your personal philosophy?
Gord: In a word BULLSHIT! - At least in my world of bondage. But then, as long as consensuality is present, I have no argument with anyone else's style. Everyone to his own.

I derive my pleasure from generating pleasure in women. If they don't enjoy it, it usually doesn't work for me because I can sense that they are not enjoying it. I prefer to dominate by taking control of a woman's incredible capacity for pleasure and turning it back on them as a weapon. If the lady wants to fantasize about being a pleasure object and nothing more, then more power to her. If it works for her, she should go for it.

I can't think of submission and dominance any other way without going into the deeper, darker reaches of my mind; a place where I am not comfortable. I guess many out there fantasize about having a secret island stocked with bound women who have no rights or considerations at all; merely slaves to your every desire. In reality, even if I had such a place, I couldn't go to that level.
I am quite happy to be where I am and enjoy the level I am at and leave the dark side as a whimsical semi-erotic thought.

TDV: Are the models that work with you experienced bondage models only or do you get people contacting you simply to experience your style of bondage?
Gord: It is a mixture of friends, models who are friends, and models we only just met. As a rule models nearly always become our friends because we treat them right and they know they are safe to enjoy their fantasies with us. As far as I know we have never used a model who was not also turned on by bondage and who was just doing it for money. Lately models tend to flock to the House of Gord when they need some R & R. After a shoot they pretty much get to be totally laid back and dragged into the clan as family. In fact that is a good way of describing our favourite ladies, they are thought of as family.

TDV: Do you have requirements of your models? Flexibility etc or do you work around their abilities?
Gord: Generally we do a work up of all their capabilities, likes, dislikes, no go areas, and what turns them on, before we will consider using them. We also very much rely on model friends we have, to advise (if they know) what the lady's capabilities are. If you want to know about bondage models, you need to ask bondage models. It is a veritable bondage model family who has their own circle of trusted people, and thankfully we appear to be in the circle of trusted people.

TDV: Do you ever have shoots that fall apart due to the model not being able to handle the bondage you plan on using? What kind of circumstances have you had to deal with in that regard?
Gord: Of course, but not that often, probably only two or three times since the website started 8 or 9 years ago. Our biggest problem when that happens is consoling the lady who feels she failed you. But I would rather scrap a dozen shoots than hurt one of these ladies or go beyond their limits because they were ashamed to call it quits. Normally we explain to the model at the outset that if we ever hear she was pushed too far and she didn't tell us, she will never work for us again. It is one of our strongest rules that they must give the safe word if they feel it is too much.

We have had a couple who told us they were maxing out early, and they were instantly released. But they were determined to do the gig. So overnight I would redesign equipment so that they could try again, and every time so far we have done the shoot easily and without a problem.

These are super complex machines to design and match with each lady, and it is very difficult to get it dead right on the first try when the lady may have been a 1000 miles away until the first try.

TDV: You’ve worked with so many people (riggers, photographers and models) you must have volumes of good stories to tell. Would you tell us one?
Gord: I would probably have to mention JG Leathers as the foremost in my mind for crazy bondage adventures. There were two crazy years in Canada that we often think about. I was in exile basically. The US Immigration considered I was a threat to the security of the United States because of what I am. (I have that in writing) I lived at John's house for over two years and gradually we built up a following of safe bondage kinks and arranged some of the most exciting bondage adventures you can imagine. It was basically non stop bondage mayhem. It even included bondage in a plane over Vancouver because we couldn't figure out how to do the scene with special effects, so we did it for real.

One such memorable incident was when we hired two horse ladies to wrangle the horses in a Blanche Maynard scene where two chicks get captured in the woods, bound, and led back to camp by the arch bitch on horse back. Neither was into bondage at that time.

So anyway, they came over to the house a few days later to look over the photos and see if there were any they objected to. John and I showed them around his dungeon and they seemed interested. I'm not quite sure how it all happened or how we talked them into it, but both these ladies ended up stripped down to their underwear, hogtied side by side, fastened down to ringbolts in the floor, both gagged with their hair pulled back and fastened to their feet. Later they ended up in rubber suits, with high heeled thigh boots, gags, the whole shooting match. One was bound to the dildo saddle suspended from the ceiling and the other connected to her, tormenting her.

So after we shot all the film we wanted, they got dressed and left. John and I watched them go and were looking at each other in astonishment. It later transpired that the girls got just around the corner and came to a screaming stop. One says to the other "I can't believe what we just did."

Well, I got to play with one of them at a later date. She came back with two friends and I ended up with three women on leashes, arm sheathed, rubberized, booted, hobbled, hooded, gagged, and wandering around downtown Vancouver looking for a club we had been invited to do a show at.

At one point we were having a problem crossing a busy road in Gas Town (Hastings Street) because the girls couldn't run with hobbles. Suddenly an RCMP cruiser pulled up in front of us. The cop sort of slowly eyed the girls up and down, shook his head in disbelief, then got out and stopped the traffic for us. I guess he didn't want to argue with the one bound chick. She was a super fit, gymnastic type gal who happened to be a Military MP. She had a way of looking at people that said "You really don't want to fuck with me unless I ask you to."

TDV: Recently a local television station aired a segment regarding your concerns about plans for a property (next door or near) to your home. Can you tell us a little about that?
Gord: I assume you mean the Nike missile site. A local school authority is trying to build a school on a site that at one time housed some of the deadliest toxins and chemicals known to man. It has been tested, but not fully, and many of these sites, once declared safe, have turned out not to be later on. Many things remain unchecked at this one, and that gives me serious concerns about student safety. What ticks me off even more is the smear campaign they launched to try and get me and other concerned people off their backs. The insinuation was that we are kinks and therefore must have hidden agendas other than being worried about kids getting hurt.

The original exposé was by an asshole reporter with a local newspaper looking for a sleaze story. He brushed aside the thick folder of photographic evidence showing that the site had many things unchecked and just kept digging for the sleaze angle. My estimation of his character went to around minus 2000 at that moment.

The later TV news feature was Komo 4, and I have to say that Liz (the reporter) did a great job in revealing the real cause for our fight, unlike the newspapers who have continually slanted the story to make us look like trouble makers with no interest other than self gain. I am pleased that it was a woman who blew the whistle on the real story behind it all. I have great faith in women. They can be a total pain in the ass at times, (as can men) but when the crap hits the fan they make great gladiators to have on your side. Sadly she may have come upon the story too late. We shall see.

TDV: After they showed your concerns they declare that you and your wife run a ‘sex website’ out of your home. Has there been any fall out from that exposure?
Gord: In the first place, that was basically slanderous. We have a properly registered office several miles away, but we also have a home office. Often we work until 10 pm answering emails etc, and there is no way I am going to stay at the registered office that many hours a day. The fact that we also use the same place for location shoots does not mean we run the business from home.

We were raided by the cops just before the exposé by the Sun newspaper and "before" Komo came to us. The cops knew the Sun story was going out the next day and had to pre-empt the breaking story so that they could answer the expected calls from the raving monster loony brigade who would ring up to claim they had seen kidnapped bound women being snatched from the road, dragged into the house and tortured. They needed to be able to say that they were on it and nothing nasty was going on.

They were told to investigate a zoning law infringement, but that wasn't bad at all. The cops were real decent and very respectful and I have no complaint about their conduct. The next day they went public with the statement that they found no evidence of any illegal act, that we cooperated with them fully, that we even showed them where everything was, and explained how it worked. They then went on to say that we may have infringed a minor zoning law, but it wasn't their place to make that judgment.

The most amazing thing was that the local people, who we expected to mount a witch hunt, rallied around. This is a heavily religious community, and we even have strongly religious people telling us that although they may not agree with what we do for a living, we totally have their support for our crusade and their heartfelt sympathy in this difficult time. Just about everyone in the town voiced their disgust at the smear tactic, and I have even had ladies with kids coming up and shaking my hand and thanking me for fighting for their kids, with statements that I should ride it out and not leave. We were thinking about leaving to be sure. But now, given the kindness of the people here we are having second thoughts. To put it mildly, we are gobsmacked. This was the last thing we expected.

TDV: Do you feel that mainstream media tries to sensationalize BDSM activity? Do you notice changes in how BDSM is handled in the media now as opposed to say five years ago?
Gord: Of course they sensationalize it. It sells, and they know it. Humans are sexually curious animals. But most of the media don't give a damn about the damage they do with bad reporting as long as they get their front page scoop of fame.

Look at the recent disgusting crap that CSI New York did about Forniphilia. That episode turned my stomach and it still makes me real mad to see our bondage people depicted as irresponsible raving homicidal maniacs who killed a women with ill advised stunts for their own pleasure, and then left the woman naked by the roadside instead of owning up to their stupidity. Worse still, they stole my ideas because they are too brain dead to work out their own storyline and turned something beautiful into something horrific.

However, some media, and film makers are trying to put out the lighter side. "Preaching to the perverted" was a classic I thought. Humor and bondage go hand in hand I think, and it makes the difference.

So to answer your question, I don't think the BDSM scoop story has that much front page punch anymore, unless they can link it to some person who committed a sex offence. If they can somehow indicate that this dude walked by a BDSM club ten years before and happened to glance at the door, they will be all over trying to say he was a member of the BDSM club and that it was full off grungy sex predators. I have been told that my story would not even have been news if I wasn't linked to the school fight.

TDV: What changes have you seen in the BDSM population from when you first began to now? Do you see the changes as positive or negative? Why?
Gord: I think the basic legalizing and outing of BDSM has been a good thing. But I would not like to see it become an everyday thing in the media. That would take away that special something.

At the same time I would say that any time you push something completely underground with draconian laws, it gets nastier. There is no control of the unethical types. Once something is made illegal, you get busted no matter what level you are at, so then the darker side can take over. A bit like the death penalty. If you just killed a cop, you may as well go on killing to try and fight your way out. You can only get fried once no matter how many you kill in the attempt to get away with it.

If reasonable BDSM is accepted, then most people will not bother to go the extra mile to that darker side and risk getting busted if they can get their jollies playing at acceptable levels of conduct.

TDV: Is there a difference in the customers on your site from when it began to now?
Gord: Not that I can discern. Actually I still have many of the original customers: they joined and never left.

Sadly, now and then we get a letter from a relative saying that "Fred" or whoever passed away. Hopefully Fred or whoever felt he was in good company as he passed his final days browsing our zany website bondage and went out with a smile and a good feeling. We also just heard that one of our members was killed in Iraq. I hope the moralist pricks who outed us to the news media remember, he was a bondage kink, and he died fighting for their right to be self righteous assholes.

Are there any other differences? Hard to tell. Generally I think we get a lot of thinkers in our style of bondage. Some people are okay with sex 'as is' and go all their lives without needing to experiment with the 'perceived' dark side of BDSM. Others, like us, just have to explore and see if there are other ways and enjoy pushing their limits.

TDV: Any thoughts about what the future holds for BDSM in general and House of Gord in particular?
Gord: I have no idea. Every day is a surprise these days. As for BDSM, I think the door has been ripped off the closet and no amount of nails will get it fixed back on. I also think it will continue to creep into mainstream and probably take on new forms as we evolve and new technologies allow us to experiment with the great adventure of human sexuality, maybe going to heights we probably cannot even conceive at this time.

Hopefully we won't get to the Barbarella stage before I'm long gone. Having sex by popping a pill and touching fingers doesn't do it for me somehow.

TDV: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
Gord: I guess my message to your customers is this. Any self respecting bondage player who likes going to the limits probably questions their motives at times and likely ponders the ethics of where they are going and what they are getting out of it. I would say this is normal in any consensual play, for either side of the sub - dom divide. My view is that the day you stop questioning yourself and trying to evaluate the outcome of the adventure, you are heading for problems.

This particularly applies to potentially dangerous play. No matter how many safety back-ups I have, and how sure I am that I can do everything possible to make the scene totally safe, I sometimes scrap the idea because I cannot morally justify the risks to the lady in my drive to produce even more erotic sensation for myself and my fans.

As the saying goes. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a ride.
I guess when I roll up to the Pearly Gates, it will be because I am basically the bionic man, otherwise I would have broken apart long ago. Past life has required lots of repairs to this abused body, including screwing it back together with nuts and bolts. My arrival will probably be on a high powered crotch rocket, in a full two wheel skid, dropping the bike as I crash through the gates whilst performing multiple somersaults and then shouting,

" Who the fuck shut the damned gates? Didn't you know I was coming?"
Live long and prosper friends.

Gord